Time to come clean

We had another serpent "incident" last night. This one was all too close to our front door for comfort, and it was without a doubt NOT a legless lizard.

I think they are all trying to find high and dry places out of all the puddles.

We had D.C. around for dinner last night (yeah with cyclone Ellie looming off the coast we still decided to entertain) and Wolf walked outside with him at the end of the night. As Wolf was coming to open the front door a little snake started moving out towards him at about waist height from the cardboard plant beside the door (that's the name of the plant, it's not made of cardboard because with this rain it would then have to be called a "mushy pile of soggy cellulose plant").

It was only a little python (we think) and it was quite a pretty little thing. It was however between Wolf and the door and not entirely agreeable to him getting back inside. I was going to get the camera but I felt kind of sorry for the little guy, he was just trying to get dry out of the puddles and people were disturbing his rest. Wolf eventually got inside without any fang marks in him.

So after our adventures with snakes this year I thought I would share some of my irrational snake fears. Most things I fear are as rational as fears get... spiders hiding in strange places, kids getting badly injured etc. My snake fears are specific, and I have now added one more to the mix.

I hate standing next to the garage door as it opens just in case a snake is curled up on top of it and opening the door would dump the snake down on my head.

I keep my gumboots inside and still worry every time I put them on that a snake will be curled up inside one.

I am sure there is a snake hiding in the cardboard plant waiting to attack me as I go past (yeah, I already had that one, now I can't use the front door anymore).

I am sure that when I open the lid of the side burner on the BBQ a snake will be curled up in there resting after having a good meal of all the frogs that like to live in there.

I always think I hear snakes in the garage where we keep all the gardening tools. Our computer is in the garage and I often sit with my feet tucked up on the chair.

I am sure we are going to find a snake in the cubby house one day. (that one came a little too close to true)

I am now convinced that I have to get the Christmas tree put away today (don't judge me, I love Christmas trees) or I will find a python taking refuge in the driest tree around.

I am practically hyperventilating writing this list. I'm not freaked out by snakes, I just don't like the surprises they give. I will happily hold a python in one of those animal display things, I don't scream like a girl and faint at the sight of a snake, I have a respect for them and I understand that they are having some housing problems with the current weather and they too want somewhere dry to live. I would however like the snakes to stay away from my fears and just let them be irrational. I do not like having what I thought were irrational fears realised.

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I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Cyclone Ellie (I instantly thought of you Renata) crossed the coast a couple of hours north of us about midnight last night. It was only a category 1 so nothing too dramatic. We did clean up the yard yesterday and stashed a bunch of stuff in the garage. It's been a bit of a weird one with super heavy rain then 20 minutes later there's blue sky. Give it another hour and it's back to heavy rain. So everything is even soggier this morning, Wolf has taken our car to work this morning because we didn't know what the roads would be like and what turn the weather would take as the ex-cyclone/tropical low moves south and turns back to the coast. We are going to be just crazy by the time he comes home this afternoon! We can't really go outside because I am still on edge after Fridays snake incident. I'll let them ride their bikes in the garage this afternoon since there's no car in there to get in their way.

Must go and arbitrate yet another fight.